Manchester City passed another test of their Premier League title-winning credentials as they brushed aside Swansea City in a record-breaking victory at the Liberty Stadium.
After seeing off Manchester United on Sunday in their biggest game of the season to date to move 11 points clear at the top, there was barely a hint of a hangover from the Man City’s Old Trafford victory or the controversial celebrations that followed.
And four unanswered goals saw Man City set a new Premier League record of 15 consecutive wins.
While a comfortable success in South Wales is unlikely to spark the same level of jubilation that upset Jose Mourinho and sparked angry scenes in the United tunnel, it did display a ruthlessness that will make Pep Guardiola’s men almost impossible to catch.
Man City rarely hit top gear at the Liberty Stadium yet still they scored four times with David Silva leading the way with two, both of which were sublime in their own way.
Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero also found the net as Guardiola’s men combined efficiency with dashes of pure quality.
After a couple of careless early passes gave Swansea some encouragement, City found their feet on six minutes through the recalled Sergio Aguero.
David Silva made no mistake on 53 minutes, however, as his sublime goal took the game out of Swansea’s reach.
His subtle pass into Sterling started the move and his clever run allowed him to collect the return pass and beat the advancing Fabianski with a sublime chip.
Eliaquim Mangala should have added a fourth goal moments later but, after meeting David Silva’s cross, he failed to make a clean contact and scuffed his effort wide.
And Man City then pieced together an effortless string of unbroken passes which ended with Aguero firing fractionally wide.
There was a momentary worry for the visitors when Swansea midfielder Roque Mesa’s shot from the edge of the box took a big deflection towards goal, but Ederson responded well to claw it away.
With five minutes remaining Aguero wrapped up the scoring as he drifted easily past two Swansea defenders and found the bottom corner.
And when Swansea did threaten in the dying moments Otamendi was on hand to block an effort from Leroy Fer then hook the rebound away from goal.